Wall construction for buildings



April 29, 1952 A. HORQWITZ WALL CONSTRUCTION FOR BUILDINGS Filed Jan. 21, 1948 Patented Apr. 29, 1952 UNHTED 'ST'iiES EPIC- Application January 21, 1948, Serial-N0. 3,529

In the Netherlands January'27, 1947 1 Claim.

1 My invention relates to building constructions and more particularly to the construction of walls or wall coverings for prefabricated houses and other buildings.

It is an object of my invention to establish walls or wall coverings of various types andsizes with only a small number of diiierent standardised panel units. For the erection of exterior as Well as of interior walls, I generally make use of only two different types of adjoining panel units, viz. (l) slabs of relatively large width, accommodated to the netting that underlies the iioor plan of the building in question, so that in horizontal cross section the longitudinal dimension of the slabs substantially corresponds to the length or width of a pane or square of the said netting or to a multiple thereof, and (2) narrower strips being positioned in offset relation to the slabs. According to the invention the lateral edges of the said panel units are formed in such a manner that the straight wall parts are constituted by dissimilar panel units and the corners of the wall by similar panel units adjoining each other with their lateral edges. Thus the straight wall parts are formed by an alternative succession of slab units and strip units, whereas in the corners of the wall two slabs (receding angle) or two strips (salient angle) are joined together.

Due to this important characteristic feature of my invention, especially in prefabricated buildings having a metal supporting skeleton, the walls or the coverings of the metal skeleton can be erected very easily, rapidly and in such a n anner that a beautiful and placid appearance of the building is obtained. By an appropriate arrangement and alternation of the slabs and strips, all sorts of walls or wall coverings can be composed only with the aid of these two types of panel units. By omitting a slab unit or a plurality of slab units with the intermediate strip units, door or window openings can be readily formed in the wall.

A further object of my invention is to form the lateral edges of the adjoining panel units in such a. manner that overlapping joints between the said units are formed.

Further objects, features and details of my invention will appear from the following description with reference tothe accompanying drawings in which ome preferred embodiments of the inv ntion have been illustrated by way of example.

In the drawings:

1 shows part of a wall according to the invention in horizontal cross section.

Fig. 2 is a similar sectional view of a. wall part in which the lateral edges of the panel units are formed otherwise. Fig. 2a shows a detail thereof on a larger scale.

Figs. 3 and 4 show three adjoining panel units according to further embodiments of the invention.

Referring to Fig. l the wall comprises two difierent kinds of. panel units, viz. slabs I and strips 2. The-netting which underlies the floor plan of the building has been indicated by some dotted lines 3. In the illustrated example this netting is composed of square panes. From Fig. 1 itis apparent that in horizontal cross section'the longitudinal dimension of the slabs I substantially corresponds with the len th of one side of a square of the netting. Thus, in the example shown a single type of slab unit will be sufficient, although it is of course also possible to make use of slabs whose length in horizontal cross section is a multipleof the side of a square.

The lateral edges of the slabs l-as well as of the strips 2 are partially bevelled at an angle of 45, so that, when a slab I and a strip 2 are joined together with their bevelled edges covering each other, the strip 2 is offset with respect to the slab l. The vertical joints between the slabs and strips are formed by straight lines 4 at an angle of 45 to the axial line of the wall. It will be understood that this junction line 4 coincides with the so-called intersection line between two adjoining units, i. e. the line connecting the points of intersection of the said units situated in the front face and the back face of the wall, respectively.

The bevelled lateral edges of the panel units also permit the junction of two slabs l (at a receding angle) or of two strips 2 (at a salient angle in the wall), as has been clearly shown in Fig. 1. -t also is apparent from Fig. 1 that the junction or intersection lines 8 intersect each other in the angular points of the squares of the netting.

When one or more slab units are omitted, such as e. g. the slab indicated in Fig. 1 with the numeral la, openings for doors or windows may be formed in the wall.

The slabs i and the strips 2 may be applied as wall or covering units to the metal skeleton of a building. However it is also possible to cover with the said slabs strips walls of brickwork or concrete. The slabs and strips may be made of any suitable material, such as e. g. natural or artificial stone, concrete, wood. plastic. etc.

In the embodiment shown in Fig. 2 the joints between the panel units are made overlapping in that the junction lines are constituted by broken lines 5. In distinction to the embodiment according to Fig. 1, the junction line 5 does not coincide with the intersection line between two adjoining units, but extends on both sides of this intersection line (vide especially Fig. 2a). The latter, which has been indicated by a dotted line in Figs. 2 and 2a, is at an angle of 45 with the axial line of the wall. Also in this embodiment two dissimilar units (slab l and strip 2) can only be joined together, when positioned substantially in alignment, whereas two similar units (two slabs l or two strips 2) are at right angles to each other when joined together.

In the embodiment according to Fig. 3 the junction line is a curved line 6 which also extends on either side of the intersection line. According to Fig. 4 the junction line is again a broken line 1 which extends, however, only on one side of the intersection line.

Whereas according to Fig. 1 all the panel units have a plane of symmetry passing through the middle of the unit and being perpendicular to its front and back face, the units according to Figs. 2, 3 and 4 are unsymmetrical.

It will be noted that all four of the embodiments of the invention which are illustrated in the drawings and described above have common characteristics with respect to the construction of the engaging edge portions of the panels. The engaging edge portion of all of the panels illustrated in the drawings are constructed along perpendicular planes which make an angle of 45 Fig. 1 is simply a flat surface. However, an examination of the embodiments illustrated in Figs. 2-4 will disclose that the opposite engaging edge portions of each panel are composed of projections and/or depressions on one engaging edge portion which correspond respectively to the depressions and/or projections on the other engaging edge portion of each panel, and these corresponding projections and depressions on the opposite edge portions on each panel have identical cross sections.

What I claim is:

A wall construction for a building, comprising exclusively two different types of adjoining panel units including wide slab members and relatively narrow strip members disposed in mutually oil-set relation, with the straight expanses of the wall comprising an alternation of slab and strip members, and the corners of the wall comprising two similar members joined together, the vertical joints between the panel units displaying a stepped configuration in a horizontal section of the wall and each stepped joint being turned at an angle of substantially with respect to the next stepped joint in said wall construction.

ALEXANDRE HOROWITZ.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

